Self-host WriteFreely with Docker Compose

A clean, Markdown-based publishing platform made for writers.

This is still a work in progress.

The generated compose file and instructions may not be complete or correct for every app yet. Please report any issues you encounter to contact@bitflake.com.

The steps below take a few minutes end to end.

Docker compose setup and file
save the generated compose and env files.
Start WriteFreely with Docker Compose
bring the stack up and check it's healthy.

Requirements

You'll need these installed on the machine you're deploying to:

Docker

Packages WriteFreely and everything it depends on into an isolated container, so it runs the same way on your machine as it does everywhere else.

Install guide

Docker Compose

Reads docker-compose.ymland starts everything in it together. Ships with Docker Desktop. On Linux servers it's usually a separate install.

Install guide

1. Docker compose setup and file

Create a folder for WriteFreely and save the file below into it as docker-compose.yml. It describes every container the stack needs — WriteFreelyitself and any supporting services, such as its database — along with the ports, volumes and environment variables each one uses. You'll also need an empty .env file in the same folder; Docker Compose reads it automatically and uses it to fill in the ${VARIABLE}references you'll see in the file below.

docker-compose.yml

version: "3.9"
services:
  writefreely:
    image: algernon/writefreely
    restart: unless-stopped
    ports:
      - 8080:8080
    environment:
      WRITEFREELY_ADMIN_PASSWORD: Admin123
      WRITEFREELY_ADMIN_USER: writer
      WRITEFREELY_HOST: http://localhost
      WRITEFREELY_OPEN_REGISTRATION: "false"
      WRITEFREELY_SITE_NAME: WriteFreely
    volumes:
      - data:/data
    healthcheck:
      test:
        - CMD
        - curl
        - -f
        - http://localhost:8080/
      interval: 10s
      timeout: 5s
      retries: 5
volumes:
  data: null

Volumes

WriteFreely stores its data in named Docker volumes, so it survives container restarts and updates:

data mounted at /data

2. Start WriteFreely with Docker Compose

From the folder with docker-compose.yml and .env, run:

Terminal

Start WriteFreely and all its supporting services in the background.

docker compose up -d

The -d flag runs the stack in the background so it keeps running after you close the terminal. Docker will pull the images the first time, which can take a minute or two.

To check on it afterwards: docker compose ps shows whether containers are healthy, and docker compose logs -f follows their logs if something looks wrong. Once it's running, open http://localhost:8080 in your browser.